As part of the 10.58-km coastal road project from Princess Street Flyover at Marine Lines to the Worli end of Bandra-Worli Sea Link, the civic body is constructing 2.07-km twin tunnels between Priyadarshini Park to Girgaon Chowpatty passing under Malabar Hill and Arabian Sea near the coast.

On January 11, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray launched India’s biggest Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) ‘Mavala’ with diameter of 12.15 metres. The BMC had set a target to complete both tunnel works in 20 months, but the pace of work was impacted due to the pandemic.

“The work of the south-bound tunnel will be completed by January as only 1-km work is remaining. Due to Covid-19 there was delay of at least two to three months this year. The TBM will make a breakthrough at Girgaon Chowpatty and from there it will be brought back to Priyadarshini Park for boring of another tunnel for north-bound traffic,” said Vijay Nighote, chief engineer, coastal road department.

State Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray has also tweeted about Mavala completing 1-km tunnel work.

The BMC has so far completed over 40 per cent work for the Rs 12,721-crore project. Reclamation work in the sea has been completed up to 91 per cent, and about 9 hectares remain out of 111 hectares. “The remaining reclamation will take a couple of months as we don’t require it immediately. This reclamation will be done at Haji Ali side and Worli near the sea link at a later stage,” said an official.

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Meanwhile, the BMC is yet to begin a survey for compensation of fishermen affected by the reclamation work. Officials said that after they failed to get a response from any contractor for the fishermen survey, they have written to Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) seeking help for the survey.